


Angels and Demons

by AlexWarden



Category: Welcome to Hell - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-06-23 03:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15597483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexWarden/pseuds/AlexWarden
Summary: Zack dies and is assigned as a guardian angel to Jonathan, making Sock’s job significantly more difficult.





	1. Chapter 1

Note: This work is unfinished because I have lost use of my computer. It will be finished as soon as possible.)) Nearly choking to death on his toothbrush was not what Jonathan would consider an ideal morning. To be fair, Sock wasn’t trying to hurt him when Jonathan looked up from brushing his teeth and saw him way too close behind him in the mirror. If Jonathan died by accident Sock would be out of a job. Meanwhile, the little demon was laughing his ass off by the sink, clutching his stomach doubled over in gleeful amusement at Jonathan’s plight.  
“Come on, its not that funny.” Jonathan grumbled and started to finish brushing his teeth.  
“You didn’t see yourself!” the floating menace said through a large, toothy smile. “You looked like you were about to DIE. I’m glad you didn’t though, or I’d be out of a job.” He continued and “elbowed” Jonathan in the rib. Predictable. It went right through him, of course, but it still felt oddly cold and tingly where it brushed through him. After that he moved to his room to finish getting dressed; Sock talked at him the whole time as he changed into his school clothes. He’d gotten used to seeing Jonathan in his boxers from the several months Sock’d been here, but he still talked just a little bit faster and didn’t make as much eye contact as he normally did when trying to bother him.  
It was fairly obvious that Sock had feelings for Jonathan, but he had elected to ignore it for the most part. He wasn’t the best at connecting with people or deep emotions and all that. He had a hard time developing crushes, and it tended to be only after he’d known someone for quite some time...Which was a whole different pain in the ass because he’d suddenly caught feelings for friends he’d had for several years that he wasn’t interested in and they could tell. It’s ended more than one friendship.  
Oh well. It didn’t really matter anymore. Jonathan finished getting ready and got on the bus, immediately putting on his headphones and tuning out the world. Sock was quiet on the bus. He’d learned that it was the one place that Jonathan absolutely refused to take off his headphones and talk. He’d start off sitting next to Jonathan, but in a few minutes he’d get bored and start to fidget. By the time they got to the school he was up and pacing around the bus and observe the other students. Jonathan knew this attitude was pretty textbook ADHD, but he’d talked to Sock about it before and he’d never been to a doctor or anything. His parents “didn’t believe in it.” Well, that certainly worked out for them.  
Sock immediately started talking again when the bus parked, even though he still had his headphones on. He hadn’t even gotten out of the seat yet, he waited for everyone else to get off first.  
“...And that’s why rabbits aren’t considered true rodents, but are in their own group called lagomorpha!” he declared as Jonathan made his way inside. Sock could talk for hours on end about animals and their classifications and the like. He was a pretty smart kid. Jonathan... not so much. He had pretty solid D’s in all of his classes. No matter how much he studied, he just didn’t understand anything. The only thing he was decent at was the guitar, and even that he wasn’t good enough to make a career out of it.  
“Mhm,” Jonathan responded to Sock without making eye contact while he got his books out of his locker and sat down in the back of his first class. He got out his phone and opened up the notes app so he could “talk” to Sock without seeming like he was speaking to the air. To anyone observing it just looked like he was texting someone like the rest of the class did before the teacher started. 

“It sucks that you have math class first period.” Sock said and rested his chin on Jonathan’s shoulder. 

“Yup. Sucks I have school at all.” He texted back. 

“Hey...I know something you can do that will ensure you’ll never have to go to school again!”

“Let me guess. Kill myself?”

“Yup!” 

“Yeah, but then I’d spend an eternity with YOU. That’s far worse in my opinion.”

“You’re so mean,” he whined and stuck out his tongue. 

To be honest... Jonathan was actually considering it. He wasn’t very smart and had a diagnosis for a good number of mental issues that would keep him from getting employed at a lot of places. Most companies don’t look at an autistic schizophrenic kid and think, “Yes! That’s who I want to hire!”. But he refused to give Sock the satisfaction of knowing that.  
Soon the teacher came in and told everyone to put their phones away. Talking with Sock was definitely a high energy task but it wasn’t nearly as bad as trying to understand algebra. This was the third time he’d taken Algebra 1; he’d failed it both times. The second time he did even worse; nobody knew how that even happened. Surprise! It was depression. Sock seemed pretty interested in it, though.  
“Oh I remember this class! I took it...5 years ago? They let me in when I was in like the 7th grade because of some placement test I took.”  
God damn him. Jonathan spent the rest of the class taking half-assed notes then doodling on the rest of the page. The teachers knew by now not to call on him because he never knew the answer and all it did was embarrass him. So at least he wouldn’t be bothered.  
This continued for the next few classes until lunch, where Jonathan sat by himself in the corner. He let himself whisper to Sock here, since nobody really came up and talked to him. Well, that girl Lil did sometimes, whenever she was around for lunch, anyway. Most of the time she just kind of wandered the halls.  
Sock was trying to gross out Jonathan with the hole in his chest, which he had long grown used to, when they could hear the sound of an ambulance pulling up next to the school.  
“What’s going on?” Sock asked. 

“How should I know?” Jonathan responded. If there was an ambulance someone was probably hurt...he hoped they were okay. 

“I’m gonna go check it out.” Sock said with a little too much enthusiasm and darted through the wall. He was back about 15 minutes later, and Jonathan had finished eating by then and was making little scribbly drawings in his notebook.  
Sock popped up from the pages into Jonathan’s face. “I’m back!” he shouted.

“Jesus Christ can you stop doing that?!” He hissed at him. 

“Not until it stops being funny!” Sock chimed. “Anyway, I saw what happened. They were taking someone out on a stretcher. Looked like one of the football players. Had a seizure or something.”

“Oh.” Jonathan said. He actually felt kind of bad. He didn’t know who this person was, but he couldn’t help but hope they’d recover. 

Unfortunately, they did not. Zack Phineas Melto did not show up to school the next day. And wouldn’t for any days after. 

 

Zack woke up in his room. His memory was a blur of head pain and bright hospital lights. He looked around, unsure of how he had gotten home. One thing that he’d noticed immediately was that his room was different. It was the same room, but it was clean and smelled...fresh. There was a faint ray of sunlight coming in through the window. He curled up on the bed into the corner. Something wasn’t right. He definitely couldn’t have cleaned it up this much, and there’s no way in hell his dad would. Quickly he reached under his mattress for the stuffed bunny he’d had since he was a child, hidden away from his father who said he was “too old for those kinds of things”. When he found it, he was surprised to find it in perfect condition. All of the dirt had been washed out, and not a single tear or hole remained. Ok, he was definitely dreaming now. He remembered being in a hospital, maybe he was in a coma? Yeah...that had to be it. Normal dreams weren’t this vivid.  
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. 

“Zack?” a friendly sounding voice chimed from the other side. “Are you awake? Can I come in?” it asked. 

“...Sure?” he said timidly. When he answered, a taller, darker skinned woman with purple hair came in and sat down on his bed. 

“Are you feeling ok?” She asked. Her voice was immensely sweet and comforting, immediately giving her a presence of someone that could be trusted. 

“Kind of?” Zack replied, relaxing just a little bit. “Where...where am I?” He asked. He knew for a fact now that this was not his house.  
“Oh. You don’t remember, do you?” She said a little sadly. “You’re in heaven, my dear.”

Zack stared at her blankly. Most people might have been significantly more upset, but he was just...relieved. He felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. His home life was not the best; his parents were divorced and he was living with his severely abusive father who moved him across the country. Because of it he’d considered offing himself more than once. The fact that a natural cause had gotten to him first kept his conscience clean. 

“It’s nice here.” He complimented quietly. Much nicer than his old room. 

“Thank you, love!” the woman said to him. She seemed relieved that he adjusted quickly. “My name is Providence. I’m who created you humans!” 

Zack’s mouth fell open. He was speaking to God. “I...I....” he stammered. 

“Oh, shh shh, don’t worry about it sweetie.” She reassured him and reached forward slowly to pat his back, hesitating at first to make sure he was ok with being touched. When Zack relaxed towards her she continued, soothing him. “I’m greeting you to heaven personally because I have a special job for you!” she chimed and handed him what looked like a small kindle. On it was a picture of Jonathan. Jonathan Combs. The awkward and lonely kid in his school that he had...quite the crush on. Zack blushed slightly and took it. The page had a lot of information on it. Most of it was basic things, like his name, picture, and birthday, but it also had more specific things such as likes and dislikes. What caught his attention was a little meter next to his picture that read “Happiness”. It was...low. Very low. The red on it glared at him, filling him with sadness. He knew that Jonathan wasn’t the most enthusiastic person, but he had no idea he was this miserable. 

“I’m assuming you can see what the problem here is.” Providence said, looking at the tablet. “And I’m recruiting you to fix it! I know you were quite fond of him, so I thought you’d make a perfect guardian angel for him!”

“Angel?” Zack said, surprised. “I can’t...I can’t do that!” as much as he cared about Jonathan, this was a lot of responsibility. And he was pretty sure Jonathan didn’t like him very much...

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the company.” She smiled, reassuring him. “Normally you’d need some time training for this role, but we’ve been losing too many people lately. The world is going through some hard times.” The sadness returned to her voice. 

Zack contemplated for a minute, then decided that he would take up the offer. His anxiety was outweighed by the thought of Jonathan hurting himself.

“Ok.” Zack said resolutely. “I’ll do it.” 

“That’s great!” Providence exclaimed. “You’ll start first thing in the morning. He can’t see you, that might startle the poor boy. Just help him out every once in a while! Replace lost items, put something nice on his desk...little things like that.” She gave him a bright smile, which Zack returned. Suddenly a Bluetooth device on her ear started to beep. “Whoops! Sorry love, I have to go attend to some other business. I’ll be back in a few days to check your progress. Go ahead and go through your door to go and start, ok? See you around!” She left through the door in a hurry. 

Zack lay down on the bed, contemplating his situation. For the first time in a long time...he was happy. After he worked up the nerve a bit, Zack left through the door and entered into Jonathan’s bedroom. 

Jonathan looked so peaceful asleep. He still had bags under his eyes, but he was more relaxed than usual. Zack went over and pulled the covers up over him a little more. Jonathan started to stir a bit, and this startled Zack, but then he remembered that he wouldn’t be able to be seen and relaxed again. The sleeping boy started to open his eyes a bit.

“...Sock?” he mumbled. “Is that you?” 

Who...who was “Sock”? He remained silent. Maybe it was his cat or something. 

Jonathan sat up, confused by the silence. Sock usually responded to him. He rubbed his eyes a bit, and focused on the blurry shape in front of him.

“Zack?!?” He half yelped, pushing himself backwards. “What the HELL are you doing in my room?” 

“Wait, you...you can see me?” Zack asked, startled. 

“Of course I can see you!” Jonathan hissed. “You’re right in front of...” He paused when he noticed that Zack was floating. Suddenly the events of the day passed through his head. The ambulance. The jock. It must have been Zack. 

“Oh.” He said, quietly this time. “That was you on the ambulance, wasn’t it?” 

Zack took a moment, then nodded his head sadly. 

“But...why me?” Jonathan asked. “Why are you here?” 

“I was assigned to you.” Zack said nervously. 

“Oh goddammit.” Jonathan said, exasperated, and fell back onto his pillow. “Just what I needed. Two demons haunting me.”  
Wait...two? Demons? What was he talking about? “I think there’s been a misunderstanding.” Zack tried to explain. “I’m not a demon. I’m an angel.”

Jonathan looked at him again, puzzled. “What do you mean?” He asked.

“I mean I’m an angel.” Zack repeated. “I’m supposed to watch over you. Make sure you’re happy.” 

Well, that was better than demon he supposed. Still someone else that would be following him around all day though...

Suddenly, a figure phased through the wall on the other side of Jonathan. He was shorter than Zack and his green eyes were reflecting in the dark, but that was all he could make out. 

“Who are you?!” Zack asked, startled by the sudden intruder. 

“Who are you?” He asked back, more of him visible now. 

“I asked you first!” Zack sputtered out. 

“I asked you second.” The figure said and crossed his arms. 

Was this the demon that Jonathan was talking about? He puffed up his chest and announced: “I’m Zack Melto. I’m Jonathan’s guardian angel. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Sock chuckled. “Really?” He said. “I’m his demon. Nice to meet you.” He smiled and extended his hand, but he did not seem the least bit friendly. The gesture seemed more like a threat than anything, and it probably was. Zack didn’t shake his hand. Something told him not to. 

“Wow, you must have a lot of friends.” Sock said sarcastically and put his hand down. Zack glared at him. This was going to be more difficult than he thought. 

Jonathan groaned and rolled over, pulling the covers over his head. “Can you guys finish the introductions somewhere else?”

“Sorry! Can’t do that, Johnny Boy.” Sock said and poked his cheek through the blanket. “It’s my job to torment you, remember?” 

Zack scowled at him. “Well it’s MY job to make sure he’s NOT tormented!” 

“Both of you SHUT UP!” Jonathan shouted, silencing the two of them. They glared at each other, but kept quiet. 

Sock decided it would be best to retreat for now. An angel might be capable of hurting him. He’d have to ask Mephistopheles about what to do.

“This isn’t over.” He hissed at Zack and disappeared through the wall again. 

When he was gone, Zack sighed and sat down on the bed next to Jonathan.  
“Sorry about that.” He said quietly. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t come back tonight.” Jonathan didn’t respond. He did get a small “ding” on his tablet though. The happiness meter had gone up by one point.


	2. Chapter 2

When Jonathan woke up the next day, he was greeted by the familiar sensation of a presence floating next to him. He was about to yell at Sock for watching him sleep again when he opened his eyes and noticed that the figure was indeed not Sock but was Zack. 

Oh, right. That whole thing that happened last night. He’s completely forgotten about it. 

Zack quietly followed him as he went through his morning routine, just...watching him. It was a welcome difference to Sock’s morning chatter, but it was still a little off-putting. He just kind of...stared. Like he wasn’t sure what to do. And he probably didn’t. 

Jonathan stumbled into the bathroom, still groggy from his lack of sleep, but then remembered what Sock had done yesterday with the mirror. He decided he wasn’t going to fall for it again and just didn’t look up while he was grooming himself for the day. As he reached for his toothbrush, he stumbled a bit and accidentally knocked it off the sink. Great, now it was on the...oh. 

Zack had caught it, and handed it to him silently.   
“Uh...thanks.” Jonathan said and started to brush his teeth. Once again, silence. It was starting to creep him out a bit. Zack talked before, what was up now? After he’d spit out the toothpaste he glanced at Zack. “What’s with the silent treatment?” He asked. 

Zack started to panic. Oh god was this weird? Was he being weird? He didn’t want Jonathan to be uncomfortable. Shakily he pulled out his tablet. “Um...your file says you wake up slowly.” He explained. “I figured you wouldn’t be up for conversation until later.” 

“Hm.” Jonathan responded, nodding gently. He could get used to this. It was already leagues better than his hectic mornings with Sock around. For a moment he wondered where the little demon even was, but he pushed the thought aside. He didn’t care. 

The rest of his usual routine was as peaceful as it could be. Zack even left the room when he got dressed, allowing him some long forgotten privacy. It only got better from there. On the bus, he sat in the seat across from him to give him space! Is this what living as a prince feels like? Probably. 

Meanwhile, Sock was having an unusually hectic morning. Every time he tried to get into Jonathan’s room to pester him, Zack was there! Just staring at him! He didn’t get a moment with Jonathan, and it was making him grumpy. After some time pacing around in the hallway, waiting for Meph’s current client to leave, he stomped in and plopped down in the chair with his arms crossed. 

“...Oh boy.” Mephistopheles sighed. “Whats eating you this time, kid?” He was used to Sock coming in at all hours of the day complaining about how “Jonathan did this”, “Jonathan did that”, “Why isn’t he paying attention to me”. Usually he just needed a pep talk and he was on his way, so he prepared to give his motivational speech once more.

Sock took a deep breath...and unleashed a whirlwind of complaint. “Some hoity toity asshole of an angel showed up claiming that Jonathan was HIS responsibility now! No he’s not, I was there first! He can’t just waltz in to someone’s haunting and take over! Pompous prick, talking about how it’s ‘his job now’ and ‘Jonathan needs to be happy’. That’s not his problem!” 

“Whoa, whoa, calm down there, sport.” Meph offered. Although, he definitely was not calm himself. Providence was not supposed to interfere with this one! Why was she messing with it? 

Sock was quietly waiting for Meph to give him some advice, but was definitely stewing. 

“This is a bit of a tricky situation.” He started. “But angels and demons can’t really interact with each other. Me and Prov arranged that rule after the fall of ‘87. BC. So don’t worry yourself about him being able to do nothing to ya.” 

Sock’s shoulders visibly slacked a bit; he was more than a little relieved at that. 

“But it’s going to be hard to do your job while he’s there.” There they went, back up again. 

“That’s why I’m going to talk to Prov and ask her about this. Usually once one of us gets to a case first, it’s our territory. I don’t send demons to bother her angels, and she doesn’t send angels to bother my demons. This is probably just some kind of a mistake.” 

Sock’s face lit up. “So he’ll be gone?!” 

“Should be in a few days. In the meantime, just do what you can. I’ll let you know when I have more news, ok kid?” 

“Ok!” He said excitedly and bounded out of the room. That kid had too much energy. Well, he had a really annoying phone call to make.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the nice comments!! I’m working on this as fast as I can!

"HEY JONNY BOY!!!" Sock yelled into Jonathan's ear, making him jolt out of bed and onto the floor. "Miss me?" he asked as he floated over his form on the floor.

Ugh. Well, the peace was good while it lasted. Jonathan sat up and looked around; his clock read 3:47. God, why was Sock such a pest. He slowly got back onto his bed and laid on his back,   
putting his headphones on to try and drown out the noise of Sock's chattering. He started to wonder where Zack was, but wasn't exactly awake enough to actually care at the moment.  
Instead he just waited out Sock...who seemed to be getting a little grouchy at his lack of attention. Jonathan could feel the cold on his cheeks from Sock trying to scrabble at his  
headphones and take them off, but he just wasn't powerful enough to move them. He chuckled at this a bit; it was actually kind of cute when he did stuff like this. He'd always said   
that his job was to try and get Jonathan to kill himself but he didn't seem like he actually wanted that to happen, really. Ah well, he wasn't going to put more thought into it right now.  
It didn't take long for him to drift back to sleep; he'd become an expert at ignoring Sock.

The problem was, it also meant he ignored his alarm, too. He woke up again to the sunlight streaming through his windows, his clock reading 10:57. He groaned and rolled over. Well, he wasn't going to school today.  
He'd missed the bus and didn't have a car. Oh well, he wasn't going to school today. He got up and went downstairs to get something to eat, but noticed Sock moping at the table.  
He snuck down to get a closer look, trying not to alert him. Sock was absentmindedly trying to fidget with a napkin on the table, barely even getting it to flutter as he touched it. He sniffled a bit…had he been crying?   
“Sock?” Jonathan called. “You alright?”   
Sock jolted up from the table and stared at him, sporting a “deer in headlights” expression.   
“Jonathan!” he exclaimed, then lost his concentration and fell through the chair he was sitting in and fell onto the floor. He just kind of stared at the ceiling, defeated. He let out a long, annoyed sigh as Jonathan walked over and stood over him, laughing a bit.   
“About time you got up.” Sock said, a little sullenly. Why did he look so sad?  
“Well, maybe I wouldn’t have overslept if someone didn’t wake me up in the middle of the night.” Jonathan said and started to pour himself a bowl of cereal.   
“That’s my job!” Sock said and sat up, adjusting his hat and sitting back in the chair at the table, a little more energetic. He was probably just lonely, which was usual when Jonathan wasn’t around to talk to him for a few hours. The boy loved his attention.   
They bantered for a bit over breakfast and Sock was seeming like his old self, when Jonathan heard a cough from behind him. He turned around, a little startled, only to see Zack.   
“Oh. Good morning.” Jonathan said. He wasn’t exactly disappointed to see Zack, but he could feel the seething hatred coming from Sock.   
“Good morning!” He said with a smile, entirely ignoring Sock. “I have some news.” He pulled a chair out effortlessly and sat in it, making Sock glare even harder. Jonathan looked at him quizzically.   
“It seems there has been some dispute over which one of us is to be permanently assigned to you.” He seemed a little sad, which made Sock perk up. He was leaving, right?   
“After some discussion, it has been decided that we are to share our roles over Jonathan.” Sock’s jaw hung open. “Although, because it would cause fighting for us to both be here, we will alternate days. Because I spent yesterday with Jonathan, Sock, today is your day to fulfill your job. I am only here to deliver news.” Zack announced. He seemed pleased that Sock was frustrated; he was steaming in his chair. “Well, I’ll be leaving. See you tomorrow, Jonathan!” he said with a smile and vanished. Jonathan looked over and couldn’t help but chuckle at how much Sock was fuming right now.   
“Hey, it could have been worse.” Jonathan said. “You could’ve gotten fired.” He said and patted Sock’s shoulder. He meant it as a joke, but Sock visibly tensed up. Hmm. Maybe he’s actually at risk of that.   
“Uh…you want to watch some TV?” he offered.   
“I…” Sock started. “I need to lay down.”   
Jonathan left him to it. He’d probably be back to usual Sock soon, but right now he seemed upset so he let him be.


	4. Chapter 4

Jonathan took up his own offer to relax in front of the television and turned it on to some show to keep on in the background while he played on his phone. Since Sock was upstairs resting, which was very unusual for him, Jonathan took this time to mull the situation over. So, he had an angel and a demon competing for his fate of heaven or hell. Both of them seemed very enthusiastic about their jobs for whatever reason. Sock seemed like he had something at stake if he failed, which explained his enthusiasm, but he still wasn’t entirely sure about why Zack was this energetic about it. The two of them never really talked at school, so he didn’t seem like he had a reason to care unless he also had something at stake which didn’t make a lot of sense. Unless, he...no that didn’t make sense either. God this was confusing. This is why he tries not to care about things. When he starts to get interested in anything, he overanalyzes the hell out of it and gets way too invested. It’s too late now though, he’s begun the Internal Monologue. Great. After another thirty minutes or so of contemplating whether or not Sock’s requirements were specifically to get him to kill himself or if he just needed to go to Hell one way or another, he was interrupted by his phone buzzing. It was a text from Lil, the closest person he had to a friend. Well, besides Sock maybe, but that was a result of overexposure more than anything. 

>Hey, where are you? You’re supposed to bring your half of the group project third period!   
>You’d better not be skipping again Combs 

Oh shit. He’d completely forgotten about it with the whole angel/demon dichotomy he’d been dealing with lately. He didn’t have anything ready. He booked it to his room to see if he could scramble something together at his desk, more or less ignoring Sock who was facedown on the bed and seemed to be asleep. Or, however close to sleeping demons can be.   
When he went to clear off his desk he noticed a binder on it that he absolutely did not place there, with a mildly rough cover titled “Igneous Rocks: A Scientific Approach”. Attached was also a blue sticky note that read, 

“I noticed you didn’t have this done, so I finished it for you. Don’t worry, I read some of your other homework and made it look like you did it.” -Zack 

Praise Jesus and God in Heaven. Having an angel around was starting to be very convenient. It looked a little messy, but it was done, and that was what he needed. He wasn’t that concerned about his grade in that class, but he didn’t want to drag down Lil and the other person in the group. Well, the teacher would probably excuse them considering his...unique...reputation, but he’d still feel bad. 

Meanwhile, Sock had awakened and was glaring over Jonathan’s shoulder at the report. Stupid Zack, interfering with his job even when he’s not here. But! That wasn’t going to deter him. 

“How’re you gonna get to school though?” Sock said in a condescending voice. 

Jonathan’s face fell a bit; he wasn’t sure. He looked at the very organized report on his desk, and decided he was going to walk. If Zack put in all that effort to get him a good grade he should at least turn it in. He got dressed and put his sneakers on, while Sock watched as usual. It used to make him really uncomfortable but he decided that was probably what Sock wanted so he just ignored him. This time, however, Sock was the one that seemed a bit uncomfortable. He was wringing his hands together as Jonathan noticed he did when he was nervous. After he’d put his jacket on Jonathan resolutely slung his bag over his shoulder and started to walk out the front door.   
“Wait!” Sock exclaimed. Jonathan turned around. “What?” He asked.   
“Isn’t it kind of...dangerous for you to walk?” He seemed genuinely upset.   
“Why do you care? You want me dead, right?” Jonathan said and continued on his way.   
“Not if you die by accident! That doesn’t count!” Hmm. Technicality noted. He probably just didn’t want to get in trouble, though. Jonathan wasn’t sure what kind of punishments were available in Hell for people that didn’t want to complete their assigned jobs but they probably were not fun. But, he still wanted to know a bit more about how this system worked since it caught his special attention for some godforsaken reason.   
“So? You’ll just move on to torment someone else, right?”   
That seemed to hit a nerve.  
“Maybe...” Sock said, nervously. “But you’re the first one I’ve had! I don’t know what will happen if I fail my first job.” Wow, he really wears his emotions on his sleeve. Maybe he didn’t really understand what kind of information wasn’t readily shared? It reminded Jonathan of how he used to be a few years ago and he felt a small pang of pity in his heart. This being his first job also explained why he was so bad at it.   
“So...how exactly did you get hired?” He asked. The best way to cheer Sock up was to get him rambling about something that interested him, and if he got rambling about his job it would be a good way to get information from him. 

Sock’s face did light up a bit. “Well, first of all, I killed myself.” Oof. That was pretty direct. 

“Actually, I killed my parents first.” Jonathan’s expression must have been a clear indication of discomfort because Sock quickly followed up with “By accident! By accident. Then I killed myself because, well, what else was I supposed to do?” 

“Huh.” Jonathan said. It didn’t seem like that was an overly devious thing. Before, thinking of what Sock possibly did to land himself in hell made him a bit nervous because he wasn’t sure what it was. This just seemed like he was there on some kind of a technicality. 

“So...are you in hell because you killed yourself or because you killed your parents?” Jonathan asked. 

Sock took a breath like he was going to answer, then paused and got a contemplative look. “I’m not sure. Maybe both?” 

“Hmm. So, if it wasn’t you killing yourself, then why would me doing that put me in hell?” 

“You know what? I’m not sure.” Sock said and started to think a bit. “I guess it must’ve been that, or why else would I be trying to get you to do it?” 

Jonathan shrugged. He wasn’t entirely sure what else to say. Besides, he was getting some odd stares from others on the sidewalk. Sock still seemed to be contemplating his question, which meant he had a distraction to keep him quiet so Jonathan wouldn’t be tempted into an outburst. 

The rest of the walk to the school was fairly uneventful, and when Jonathan arrived he made the familiar trek to the office for getting a late slip then headed to his class. He was a few minutes late and interrupted another students presentation but oh well. They were used to that. He sat behind Lil, who was glaring at him.   
“Don’t worry, I have it.” Jonathan said and presented the binder. She gave a light smile. 

“Shouldn’t you look through that so you know what you’re presenting?” Sock offered, which surprised Jonathan. Sock? Helpful? Maybe he was more shaken up by this than he thought. Either way, it was good advice. He started to flip through the binder. The handwriting was messy, but the general information on what he needed was all there. Ok, this would be fine.   
Lil elbowed him. “We’re up next.”   
Jonathan was a little nervous. He wasn’t the best at speaking. When he got up to the front of the class, he saw Sock giving a thumbs up from the back. Unusual. 

The presentation went about as good as expected. Jonathan stuttered quite a bit and didn’t look up at the class, but the teacher seemed impressed that he had actually completed the project. Well, he hadn’t actually, but she didn’t know that. 

After class, Lil congratulated him. “Good job, Combs. Didn’t expect you to pull through.” She handed him a folder. “I’d actually prepared to do your part.” Jonathan slunk into his hoodie just a bit. He felt bad that she was able to predict that he’d forget. 

“Thank you.” He said quietly. 

“You didn’t even get distracted. Your demon leaving you alone today?” Oh, right. She kind of knew about Sock. Although, she was more under the impression that he was a consistent one of his hallucinations. 

“Yeah, he actually sat in the back today.” Jonathan said. Sock tuned into the conversation; he always wanted to listen when people were talking about him. 

“Maybe that means you’re getting more confident?” Lil asked. 

“Maybe.” Jonathan responded. Sock seemed offended. 

“I’m not a hallucination, you know.” He scoffed. “I’m a real demon.” 

Of course you are. Jonathan himself was still a bit on the fence on whether or not Sock was real, but one thing that he didn’t follow was that the others could hear his mindvoice. Sock had to be spoken to out loud. 

Jonathan and Lil both decided to skip class and just chat about their various problems before school was out. He said his goodbyes and headed home on the bus. Sock still sat uncomfortably close to him, but didn’t talk much. Jonathan wasn’t sure what was up with him, but maybe Lil was right.

When he got home, Jonathan decided sock deserved a reward for his good behavior today.   
“Hey. You wanna watch a movie?” He asked. Sock’s face lit up brighter than a solar flare. 

“HELL YEAH!” He shouted, and eagerly threw himself onto the couch while Jonathan got Netflix up and started to browse through the titles. After a few minutes of searching, Sock excitedly stopped him on a title he didn’t recognize; “The Evil Dead.” 

It looked like a bad horror movie, but, Sock did get to pick. “Ok.” Jonathan said and played it expecting it to just be mindless gore, but it was actually a fairly entertaining movie. Of course, Sock spent the whole time talking about the actors and the history and the canon universe the entire time so he didn’t actually get to watch it as a movie, but this wasn’t really for him anyway. 

Jonathan ended up falling asleep near the end of the movie. He did have a busy day. 

Sock looked over at him mid sentence, not realizing he wasn’t awake for a good while since he was excited about the movie. He was a little upset that Jonathan didn’t watch the whole thing but he was happy enough that he even offered in the first place. Without thinking much, he reached over and touched his hair gently but retracted it quickly when he realized he could actually feel it. That was odd...normally when he tried to touch Jonathan he just went right through. As he was about to try again to make sure he wasn’t imagining it, he felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“How’s it going, kid?” His boss said to him. Of course. He had a bit of an intimidating tone to his voice, though. 

“Good.” Sock answered without looking at him. 

“I can see that.” He answered back. “Which is why I came to talk.” Suddenly they were back in the office. Sock shrunk in his chair. He was probably in trouble.

“Listen, kid. I know you’re a little put off by the angel situation. I am too.” He said with a sharpness to his voice. “But you need to keep up with your job. If anything, you need to be even more aggressive right now.”

Sock wasn’t appreciative of being scolded for wanting to be nice to Jonathan, but his boss wasn’t wrong. 

“And look, I know you have an emotional attachment to your client. I get it, you don’t have any friends besides him.” Sock looked away. Right again. “But if you don’t do your job and he ends up going to heaven, you’ll never see him again.” Before Sock could even fully process that implication, Meph plopped a large folder on the desk. It was a maroon color with Jonathan’s picture paperclipped to the front. For some reason it was giving Sock a bad feeling in his stomach. 

“Some files from the phobia and repressed memories cabinets. I normally don’t give these to my staff unless they really need some ammunition, and you seem like you need the help.” 

Meph stood up. “This should make your job a lot easier.” He said, his cheerful tone returning. “I like you kid, it would be a shame if you weren’t able to hold your job. Hey, it’s your day off tomorrow, right? Go ahead and use that time to do some homework.” He gestured to the folder. 

“But...” Sock tried to argue, but found himself back in Jonathan’s living room. He was still sleeping peacefully. Sock sighed, and set the folder aside. Tomorrow he’d have to step up his tormenting game big time if he wanted to keep his position...but for now, he just watched Jonathan have his last moments of peace.


End file.
